Terminator: Genisys

The 410th film I have seen in theaters…

An “okay” movie ruined by marketing.

Actually a little convoluted. This is a movie that absolutely cannot stand on its own. Knowledge of Part 1 is essential. The first half of the movie is an alternate history of that original film. A terminator travels back to the 1980’s to kill Sarah Connor- mother of the future savior of mankind against the robots. A soldier, Kyle Reese, also travels back to stop the Terminator. This time around, A terminator made an attempt on her life when she was a little girl and a T-800 (Arnold) is sent back to save her. When Reese arrives in this altered timeline, Sarah is already a trained soldier (a’ la T-2). Here is where things get wonky. There is also a T-1000 running around the 1980’s and there is a plot involving memories of alternate timelines and a cell phone app called Genisys in the year 2017, where 1980’s Sarah and Reese must travel to and….

sigh…

Arnold returns in what amounts to his least developed turn as a Terminator. He is “Pops’, the T-800 that raises Sarah. On the one hand, it was nice seeing him back in his signature role. On the other hand, He added very little to the movie- believe it or not.

Emilia Clarke appears as Sarah Connor. Linda Hamilton owned the shit out of this character, and Clarke was not able to match that performance in T-2, despite her best attempt at impressions. I never bought her character, poorly developed.

Jai Courtney is not Michael Biehn. They did not even attempt to replicate the original Reese. Biehn was not muscle-bound. he was a normal, half starved, soldier from the future. This guy is captain america. That being said, he was the best written character in the film. He has something of an arc, but suffers from the same poor development that everyone else was given. He was able to elevate his part, so he gets a cookie.

This man could act his way out of anything. J.K. Simmons steals the movie, but to be honest, this was like taking candy from a baby for him. The one really bright point in the film.

Jason Clarke, a good actor, plays John Connor…Terminator T-3000. lol. Now, this could have really worked- John Connor corrupted into a Nano Terminator, but he does little more that spout exposition and twirl his villain mustache. This might have had more impact if the marketing did not spoil him as a robot, but what ya gonna do. They dropped the ball.

This could have been a great movie. The basic premise was sound, and they had a lot of elements in place to deliver something special. They simply dropped the ball. It was okay, probably better than a Cameron-less Terminator 5 should have been, but I was personally hoping for more.